National Conservation Lands

When COVID-19 made it impossible for Ranger Heidi Blankenship to host a four-day, seven-person volunteer project, she got creative about completing her last big volunteer project at the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness before she joined the team at the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. A five-strand barbed wire fence was lying on the ground, stretching from the wash at Deer Creek over to Aravaipa Creek on the south, across a wide bench popular for camping within the wilderness. The west-trending part of the fence had been removed by volunteers before the pandemic hit, but the south-trending part still needed to be removed to improve wildlife habitat and to increase safety for visitors.

ANILCA is 40 years old today. Do you know some of the most important details of this hugely important law? We sat with leadership from the three largest federal land management agencies in Alaska to get their thoughts.